Saturday, May 14, 2016

priv·i·lege

ˈpriv(ə)lij/

noun a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people.

In college I remember staying up all night searching for those idealistic words about life and God and love and faith. There were times that my mind would not let me go to sleep until I got something down on paper. A white, middle-class, cisgender, Christian, male, non-disabled, English speaking, educated, 'heterosexual', American who thought he had the world figured out and wanted to let everyone know.

Great.

All of those attributes ('minus one') were all privileges I was born into. Privilege was something I took for granted and didn't consider much in my young idealism. I didn't consider it until I dropped those quotation marks and admitted some things to God and the mirror.

Finally the American Dream, the American privilege, had started to unravel and I was forced to begin the long overdue process of opening my eyes to this thing called privilege. I am thankful for the wakeup call.

But there is a beauty in discovering its presence. It brings down barriers. It forms tears and sparks compassion. It spreads hugs and ignites activism. It helps us discover what it means to be human and what it means to love one another well.

My hope is that we all discover privilege and keep discovering it.

If your privilege is taken away, be humbled. It's frustrating, I know. You might even need some space to throw a tantrum. I get it.

But let's get one thing straight. Having a part of your privilege taken away is not the same as being persecuted. Persecution is a very real thing in our world and that word should not be used lightly. Privileges must subside if equality is to prevail. Discover your privileges and be humbled.